Star Wars The Vong Wars: Hidden Heroes
by Shadow Dragonbane
Summary: A group of kids, descended from refugees of the Clone Wars living on Sernpidal, narrowly escape the destruction of their planet and a series of events leave them fighting the Yuuzhan Vong behind the scenes.
1. Chapter 1

New Humbarine was a city on Sernpidal, populated by the survivors of Grievous's bombardment of the planet Humbarine in the Clone Wars. The people living in the city were human, the only humans on Sernpidal. The native Sernpidalians had agreed to take in the refugees, and the city had been built to accommodate them.

The moon was falling. Alarms were going off all over the city now, accompanied by fierce winds and something akin to minor earthquakes. Evacuation attempts had been started, but in New Humbarine, ships were few. In fact, the same was true of the entire planet. Almost all the ships in the area were gone already, though evacuations had begun only an hour and a half before. The makeshift evacuation ships were mostly in the bigger cities on the planet, where there were ships at all. Those left were mostly ships that were privately owned, or ships reserved for government officials.

This made escape for those without personal ships difficult. Tyler stood in a room with a circle of his friends, talking over the crisis with them. None of them were very old, all in the range of thirteen to fifteen standard years old, but in light of the situation they were willing to go to drastic measures.

From left to right around the room, they were Chase, Casey, Daniel, Allie, Claire, Zach, Tyler, Jessica, Garrett, and Adrienne. In a corner of the room was Cale, silently working on something on a computer.

Chase had red hair and brown eyes. He could be crazy and unpredictable at times, but was creative and smart at the same time.

Casey had brown hair and glasses, and a small, round head that gave him a vaguely mouselike appearance in Tyler's opinion.

Daniel had red hair, spiked in the front. He was an athlete, but combined brains and brawn quite well. He focused more on recreation than school though, and didn't take as difficult classes as he could.

Allie was short, and had brown hair. She was creative and smart like Chase, but used it in different ways and had a knack for strategy. She was a kind person, and was good at helping people with their problems and listening to them vent.

Claire had brown hair with some blonde in it, and had blue eyes. She had a tendency for idealism and optimism. Her interests differed from those of her friends, but they had enough in common for it not to matter.

Zach had a slightly pinkish face, roughly oval in shape, and though he lacked good looks he was fairly smart. He had a tendency for pessimism and sarcasm though. His friends called him by his last name of Friss more than they referred to him as Zach.

Tyler had red hair like Daniel and Chase, coupled with green eyes and glasses. He had freckles and his skin was somewhat pale due to his ancestry. He could be slightly irritable at times, but he had a knack for understanding people.

Jessica was blonde, with hair down to her waist. She was a good actress, but when she became angry she was quick to speak her mind. She wasn't one to hide her thoughts, and told people exactly what she thought of them without trying to make it sound better.

Garret brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He had a Coruscanti accent, and could be quiet or loud depending on the situation. He could be angered easily, but quite often took pleasure from irritating his friends.

Adrienne had brown hair and blue eyes, with pale skin. She had a slightly high pitched voice, and had lived a sheltered life, resulting in a naive person. She was smart though, and could figure out things fairly quickly.

Cale had short blonde hair, and had a nerdy appearance, which was enhanced by his glasses. He could be completely random under normal circumstances, and most people thought he was slightly unstable.

Zach broke the silence. "We've got about…seven hours," Zach said as he checked his chrono. "There's only one ship left in this city, and it's government owned. Unless you guys happen to have a few dozen guns stashed away…we're screwed."

"Zach…don't talk like that. There has to be something we can do." Allie replied.

"Like what? We're stuck here. We're in a city that's made up of refugees and their descendants, so no one has a ship but whatever New Republic officials are taking their turn watching the city The only thing we have going for us is the fact that we are on the other side of the planet from Sernpidal City where the worst effects are."

"Maybe we could steal it. We could start a riot or something and slip on in the confusion," Chase said. He was grinning the entire time, showing he really wasn't taking his own idea seriously.

"Oh yeah, that'll really work. Why don't we try robbing a local bank while we're at it?

Or taking over Coruscant with a bundle of sticks and some rocks? That'd be easy," Casey said sarcastically, earning a joking shove from Chase.

"Guys, come one. Let's be serious. Our planet's about to get crushed, and we've gotta at least try to get off," Daniel said with a note of seriousness.

"Well it's not like there's a chance that we'll steal that ship. That's just a bit out of our league." Casey

"Yes…yes there is. I think we can commandeer that ship. All the guards in town are off guarding evac ships in bigger population centers, and keeping crowds under control. No one is going after the spaceport because of the locks. But I'm willing to bet there's only a small amount of guards in it, because they don't expect it to come under attack. Cale, could you slice the lock?" The look on Tyler's face was all the confirmation anyone needed to know he wasn't joking.

"You're nuts! There's no way we can beat armed guards, while still getting off the planet without getting shot down," Zach said, emphasizing his words with some arm motions and shocked facial expressions.

"Six. Six guards, all in riot gear and only one has a blaster. The other five are local militia hired to keep the peace. I can definitely slice that lock, it's a cheap model. And if I can slice their local database, I should also be able to hack into the spaceport's computer." As he finished speaking, Cale looked up from the computer in the corner of the room to see the responses.

It was a mixed reaction, to be sure. Some looked in disbelief, others looked confident in his slicing abilities; other reactions ranged between the two and appeared different entirely. It seemed to vary by who knew him the best.

"So what do you expect us to do? Charge in gun blazing and hope we win? You guys haven't forgotten Garret is the only one here with a blaster right? A hunting blaster." Zach said, with a hint of sarcasm. "And then what? How do you expect us to fly it out? That ship requires a crew of a hundred sixty people!"

Cale was the first to answer. "It's a CR-100, complete with full slave rigging. We only need a bridge crew to get off the ground. And besides, it's more like forty."

"A little more than that, but the ship should be able to work on a skeleton crew of eleven people. If we can outrun or outwit the local defense force, we should be able to keep it running long enough to drop off the refugees and disappear. Sell it, leave it, whatever we decide to do," Tyler explained.

"We're just kids though! We can't fly a military ship off the planet. And what do we do when -if- we do make this work? Don't you think they'll stop us if we're flying a stolen ship?" Even in a crisis Zach could be himself, Tyler marveled.

"Friss, shut up! If you want to stay and die here be my guest! But there's a chance we can make if off this planet, and we're going to take it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to just sit around and die you kriffing moron! So sit down, shut up, and stop being such an idiot!" Jessica took a step forward for emphasis, her eyes growing wider and her face showing just how angry she was. Zach retreated to a chair along a wall of the room, knowing full well that no one would try very hard to stop her if she decided to take it a step further.

Daniel decided to ignore the spectacle, and went straight to what he had to say. "No, no they won't. Because our first stop will be Telos IV. No one's going to care what the hell we're flying there. That planet's become practically lawless. We'll just get the ship a new paint job, get a new engine ID, and drop off anyone who doesn't want to stay on with us until we reach somewhere more hospitable." Daniel was the speaker this time, wearing a huge grin at his contribution to the plan.

"Telos IV? Why Telos? I mean yeah, we'll have less of a chance of being caught by authorities, but I'm not so sure taking a team of teenagers into a hellhole of a city is a great idea. And I don't think Telos has anything but hellholes these days," Chase said. Though his words didn't suggest it, Chase looked more confused than concerned about the idea.

"Well, it's better than landing on somewhere like Ord Mantell, which has a New Republic presence," Daniel responded.

"Personally, I would prefer Nar Shadda or Bonadan, but Telos is closer. Sure it's full of criminals and corruption, but it's close to us, and we'll be able to find what we need easier," Tyler said.

"Nar Shadda? Bonadan? Tyler, you're crazy. A Hutt world or a world that's completely polluted?" Casey sounded bewildered by Tyler's ideas, and his face supported his voice.

"But the Hutts and the Corporate Sector Authority have a strong presence on those planets. And those presences wouldn't be likely to report us," Tyler responded thoughtfully.

"Ok guys, Allie and I have a plan. Daniel, you, Chase, Casey, Allie, and Jessica go find everyone you know," Claire said, speaking for the first time. " Tell them to meet us at the Corvette's docking spot in an hour and a half, with their families and anything they really don't want to lose. And…keep in mind; we'll only be able to fit around six hundred refugees. That's probably around one hundred of our friends and their families, and don't forget ours will be aboard to. You guys can go ahead and leave now, you'll need the time and you don't need to know what we'll be doing." Daniel nodded, and started to leave the room.

"But what if it doesn't work? Then we'll all show up without any way off the planet," Chase said.

"Well, it's our best chance," Allie said. "Besides, it's better than sitting on our hands in here." She grabbed Chase's arm and pulled him out of the room with everyone else.

Claire looked at the remaining five teenagers, and paused for a moment before starting again. "Here's what we'll do. Garrett, we're going to record ten different recordings of your blaster firing, all at different strengths for ten seconds each. Then I'll take the recordings a few blocks away from the spaceport, and I'll play them all into the town's com system at top volume. If they're all set to loop, it'll sound like a fire fight. Then Adrienne, you'll come running from that direction doing your best to sound like someone who just escaped a huge firefight or something. You tell them there's a big…something going on down there and convince them to go take care of it." Adrienne nodded, though it was obvious she didn't like the idea of having such a big role in the plan.

"When they leave, Cale will slice the lock and get us in, then hack into the port's computer. Friss, while he arranges for us to steal the ship, you'll slice in a new password for the lock so we can prepare for them to come back. Tyler, you and Adrienne are going to head straight for the bridge of the ship, there shouldn't be anyone on it since the New Republic officials and their crew aren't returning for a few hours. Tyler, you're going to learn how to fly it and Adrienne, you'll plot a course to Telos IV. And Garrett you'll prepare a defense for when we're ready to ambush the guards and neutralize them."

Garrett was the first to respond. "How do I do that? If I'm the only one defending…"

"You won't be.. If I know my ships, there should be an armory on the fifth deck, and we can get some equipment there." Tyler paused, and then thought of something to add. "And I know my ships. Especially fighters, freighters, and corvettes, and guess what we're taking?" He smiled, for the first time really believing they could pull off their plan.

"Hold on…what do we do if the guards call for reinforcements? We can take the six, but what if they get help? Armed help?" Adrienne looked at Cale as she finished, knowing he was probably going to respond first.

He didn't disappoint. "I can jam their com channels from the spaceport's main office. Let me worry about taking care of that."

"Any other questions?" She paused for a moment. No one said anything. "Good. Let's get ready and get this plan under way. And be careful. The city will be in a panic and people will be everywhere." Claire led the way out of the room, and, grabbing whatever they had brought in with them, everyone followed her out.

The preparations were taken care of fairly quickly, and everyone was in position within a quarter of an hour. Adrienne marveled at the speed they managed it, but only for a moment. Her job would set off the whole plan, and she needed to focus. A lone blaster shot rang out, and it was time to go. She broke into a sprint, and began hectically maneuvering through the cluttered streets of the neighborhood they had selected and through the panicking crowds, headed for the spaceport. More blasters sounds joined that of the first, and then the illusion of a firefight was complete. The next few minutes flew by as she ran, and, finally, the spaceport was in view. She saw the guards looking at her, and began to slow down and prepare for her role.

"There…there's a…shooting…back there!" She didn't need to try hard; she was winded and really sounded like a scared teenager. Talking while short on breath, however, was difficult. Especially with the howling winds forcing her to speak loudly. But all of that just made her sound more exasperated. "It's a local gang! They…they're just shooting everyone! They going door to…door, taking whatever they want and killing anyone they see!" Inside, she smiled. Easy.

The sergeant was gullible too. "Rodders…I knew this would happen. The planet is going down, and they don't care what happens anymore. Come on; let's go take care of those nut jobs!"

The other guard on door duty wasn't quite as willing to help. "You're kidding right? We can't leave our posts. Besides, they're all going to die in a few hours anyway. I say let 'em be."

"We're helping, and that's final. Call the others, and let's get going." He glared at his subordinate, who begrudgingly removed his comlink from his pocket.

"Rollins, get out here. There's a firefight downtown and sarge says we gotta go help. Tell everyone to grab their gear." From the com, Adrienne heard a faint affirmative, and then the door slid open. The sergeant cocked his blaster, and started in the direction of the sounds without waiting for the others to follow him. Deciding to forsake their dignity to catch up, the rest of his men ran after him, and the door closed and locked behind them.

They were soon out of sight, and Adrienne gave the signal for the others to approach. They rounded the corner of the nearest building, and Cale went straight to his job slicing the lock. He was fast, and in half a minute they were inside. Cale looked around, and stopped to think for a moment, then headed off in the direction of the main office. Zach was already at work on the lock. Adrienne looked at Tyler , having no knowledge of the building herself, and began to follow him and Garrett to the nearest docking arm.

Cale found the office quickly, and set to work on the security system. The password was the same one as the one on the front door's lock, so it only took a moment to get in.

"The security here sucks…" The system was pretty basic, and he found what he wanted quickly. One slice later, he was in the Corvette's computer. He took a quick look at the ship's systems, and then activated its jamming systems. It was a simple matter to overwrite the protocols programmed into the ship's computer, and soon he had the doors connected to the docking arms open as well. He made a second check for any surprises on the ship, but apparently the officials that owned it weren't expecting it to be stolen. The ship was clean, and the crew hadn't even begun to arrive yet. He checked the time, and, noting that there was only twenty five standard minutes left before the refugees arrived, he decided to head back to the front to aid Garrett when the time came to eliminate the guards.

From her vantage point on the roof of the community center, Claire could see the guards approaching. It had certainly taken them long enough to arrive, she noted, and she hoped that everything was going as planned. After a few minutes of watching them, she realized why they were taking so long. Whatever Adrienne had told them, it was causing them to search door to door for the source of the blaster shots. They were starting to get fairly close to her position, so she decided to leave her post and start heading for the spaceport. She left the recordings playing, and dropped through the trap door that she got up through, stumbling as the ground shook below. No one was in the building, which worked in her favor. She was quickly out the back door, and she cut through several alleys to get around the guards.

Unfortunately, she hadn't checked to make sure they were all together. As she left the backstreets and moved onto a main road, she was cut off by a guard.

"Hey! What are you doing sneaking around back there?" As the guard stopped talking, she noted that his only weapon was a stun baton. Not the sergeant.

"I'm…those guys with blasters chased me out of my house! I didn't want to run into them again, so I started going through the alleys. And I couldn't get through the crowd." If he wasn't watching her so closely, she would have crossed her fingers.

"Hmm…lemme call in sarge." He pulled out his com. "Sarge, I've got a suspicious girl down here. Advice?" He paused and waited for a response…and got static. "What the? Hello? Kriffing…" He turned and ran in the direction of the rest of the guards. "Our coms are being jammed! We've been tricked, head back to the spaceport!"

Claire took that as her cue. She hopped once, and when she landed she was running as fast as she could, or at least as fast as possible given the conditions. She was faster than the guards, and she wasn't burdened any gear. Soon they were out of sight, and she couldn't hear them calling to each other anymore. After running flat out for a few minutes, she slowed to a jog, and then, only a few meters from the door, she stopped jogging and walked.

Obviously, someone was watching the security cameras. The door slid open, and she walked in to find Zach, Cale, and Garrett crouching behind barriers and aiming blasters at the door. "The guards are onto us…I bumped into one on my way here and he realized we're jamming them. They'll be here any minute."

"How did you manage that?"

"Cale, just drop it and get ready…"

"Whatever."

Claire picked up a spare blaster and noted with some surprise it was already set to stun. She got behind the middle barrier next to Cale, and realized the door was still open.

"Shouldn't we-"

"No, we want them to come in. Just stay quiet." Garrett had something in his hand, but Claire couldn't quite tell what it was. She settled down behind the barrier, and copied everyone else's positions, staying out of site of the door and facing away from it.

It wasn't long before she found out why. She heard a voice from the direction of the door, and then there was a click from Garrett's direction, a thud, and the flash of a flash-bang grenade going off. She spun around, bringing her blaster up to aim at the nearest guard, and fired. A blue stun bolt flashed from her gun, and a guard collapsed onto the ground.

It was over in another couple of seconds. The sergeant had been hit by the stun grenade, and without his blaster they didn't score a single hit. Garrett fired a second stun bolt into each guard, and then signaled to the others to grab a body and drag it.

"Where are we taking them?" Claire had missed this briefing after all, and wanted to know what they were doing with them.

Garrett knew what he was doing. "We're taking them to the brig of the Kuat Envoy."

So that was the ship's name, Claire thought. And the officials were Kuati. That would explain their unusual taste in ships, and how they could afford a limited production ship. She grabbed a guard by the legs, and started to drag him in the direction Garrett had started in.

Tyler stared at the ship that was about to be theirs. A CR-100, one hundred fifty meters long, fifty wide, and forty five tall. It was larger than its parent ship, the CR-90, mainly because of the hangar bay that took up the bottom twenty five meters of the ship. It included an extra bank of engines as well, where a CR-90 had two banks of four and a middle one of three, the CR-100 had two banks of three in the middle in addition to the banks of four on top and bottom. It had neither of the turbolaser turrets the earlier model had on the top and bottom of the front, and the mid section of the ship, which sloped out to the sides, extended all the way to the engines of the ship. The back of this area molded into the hull where four thin durasteel plates extended out from the spine of the ship to the round cylindrical extensions on the previous model.

Toward the front, it sloped gradually in until it touched the hammerhead reminiscent bridge section.. Because of this, the ship was able to fit more systems and accommodations, including a dining room big enough to fit the entire crew and two kitchens on the top deck. The top deck also included quarters for the entire bridge crew, the captain, and the second in command. There were also four other cabins for anyone else requiring personal quarters. The next deck down had enough bunk cabins to fit a fairly sizable crew, and included a large medical bay. It also had the ships refreshers. The third deck had a higher ceiling than the other decks, due to its function as the maintenance deck. The shield generators were found toward the back of it near the engines, inside the cylindrical area connecting the engines. The front two thirds were taken up by a droid bay, an overall maintenance bay, and a sensor suite. The back end served as an access to the engine room. The next deck down was mostly storage, for extended trips. What wasn't storage was designed to hold tibanna gas for the weapons, but since this particular ship had no turbolasers the holding tanks were empty. The fifth deck contained proton torpedo launchers, which were unarmed as well. The rest of the floor included two airlocks, one on each side of the ship with equipment for extra vehicular activity, and an extensive armory. The armory contained various types of blasters, vibroblades of different sizes, spare blaster cartridges and power cells for different types of equipment, and there were several suits of light to heavy armor. Just forward of the armory were two small bunk rooms for any soldiers or guards assigned to the ship. The sixth and final deck consisted of a small brig, and a recreation area that the previous owners must have had installed, which included a fairly large library of datacards with information ranging from known animal in the galaxy to maps of major cities and a set of virtual reality helmets, linked to the same virtual realm. Under the sixth deck was the twenty five meter high hangar, which was big enough to hold about two squadrons of X-wings, though six of the X-wings would have to hang from specially designed catwalks hanging from the ceiling, much as TIE Fighters would on an Imperial ship. The hangar deck also included a cabin for the fighter pilots and equipment for the maintenance of any ships in the hangar. The remaining space was used up by the turbo lift present at the front of the ship and a storage room for torpedoes, tibanna gas tanks, and fuel. The ship lacked fighters just as it lacked weapons, so this deck was empty.

In between each floor was a layer of critical and non-critical systems accessible through removable floor panels, though the majority of the critical systems on the ship such as communications and life support were located in the bridge section. The space in between the deck six and the hangar was made up of the mechanisms for the hangar doors, which folded up into the ceiling when opened. The ship's armor was about a meter thick all around, providing sufficient protection for all areas of the ship. The bridge section was connected to every floor by a set of stairs, to prevent decks of the ship from being cut off by turbolift malfunctions. Each floor could also be reached by a service shaft running down the side of the turbolift shaft as well. The bridge section contained the ships computer, which handled navigation and other major functions of a starship it's size. The outside of the ship was white with red highlights, the color scheme of a diplomatic ship..

And it was all theirs now. He turned and headed back into the spaceport's interior, making his way to the front to watch the screening of the refugees they were going to be taking on. There were six hundred slots to be filled aboard the ship, so each person sent out to look for people to rescue would each admit one hundred. At this point there was nothing to stop their escape, so the crowd was allowed to gather outside the spaceport. One family was admitted at a time, and then herded toward their space aboard the ship. Families with sick or very young children were given space in a cabin, but the rest were forced to gather in the dining room and the hangar.

Tyler approached Jessica's admittance line when something occurred to him. "Is it just me, or are there no elderly people coming in?"

Jessica turned from her line, her eyes darting to the floor for a moment and the smile on her face vanishing. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out..

Zach opted to answer for her. "We have them all at the end of the line…we decided that since they've already lived their lives rescuing them was…a secondary objective. The lines are arranged in a certain order. Those with young children are admitted first, followed by the families with pre teens and teens. Young adults are next, with those married or engaged coming first. Married or engaged people over the age of thirty five

standard years come next, with unmarried people over thirty five and the elderly at the end of the line."

At first, Tyler struggled with his words. But he came up with something to say soon enough. "Who's idea was that?"

"Mine.."

"That's not right! That's inhuman Zach, to arrange people we are rescuing by importance? Why would you-"

Jessica interrupted him, having finally found her voice. "No Tyler, he's right. Since we can only admit so many people, we had to decide who would be a priority and who…wouldn't. I'm sorry if you don't agree, but it was a necessary evil. We chose to take those who haven't experienced life before those who had. If you don't want to watch…you can go help prep the ship for takeoff or help Cale steal the credits we'll need once we arrive on Telos IV." It was obvious Jessica wasn't happy with the arrangement either, but still grudgingly agreed with the idea.

Tyler knew it was an argument he couldn't win, so even though he disliked the concept he decided not to argue. He hesitated for a moment, and then turned to leave.

Still, even if he disagreed with this part of the plan he couldn't disagree with the stealing of credits from a doomed planet. He didn't think he could provide any help though, so he decided to just begin prepping the ship. After a quick walk up to the docking arm and into the ship, he walked onto the bridge.

Adrienne was the only one there, working on complicated hyperspace navigation routes. He decided not to bother her, and sat down in the captain's chair, which had access to the extensive slave rigging on the ship. There wasn't much to do, as he'd already done most of it. But it hadn't been time to cut off the fuel and coolant lines yet, as there hadn't been enough on the ship for a trip past Telos IV. He cut off the flow of the precious liquids, and, not bothering to do it manually, disengaged the locks keeping the tubes attached, causing them to fall to the ground. Then, with no more fuel coming in, he started the warm up sequence for the subspace engines.

After taking a quick look at the starboard security camera, he disengaged the docking ring, which caused its failsafe to retract it into the spaceport wall. The other ring still had people coming in it, so he skipped it for the time being. He closed the ship's hangar doors, which had been opened at some point to load cargo. Next he activated the ray shields, which would be necessary for leaving the atmosphere. Finally, he opened the spaceport's roof, allowing the ship to take off as soon as everybody was onboard.

Finished with everything else, he began loading Adrienne's navigational data to the ship's computer. He overlayed the projected route on a map of the galaxy, and, satisfied that it lead to Telos IV, he programmed the first jump.

By the time he was done, the refugees had finished loading onto the ship and those involved in their plan had walked onto the bridge. The port docking arm had been disengaged and collapsed from a violent quake, so he activated the repulsorlifts and lifted the ship free of the spaceport's walls. He slowly maneuvered the ship in the direction of the first jump, and activated the subspace drives. The ship reached the speed needed to escape the atmosphere quickly, and soon they were rocketing toward outer space.

And with that, the ship gave a flicker of pseudo motion and entered hyperspace.


	2. Chapter 2

Tyler sat back in his chair and sighed. They had escaped the destruction of Sernpidal.

"So…what now? We got away, but now we might have New Republic ships looking for us when we drop out of hyperspace. Those diplomats will have gotten the word out by now." Chase spoke with a tone suggesting the loss of their home planet had just sunk in.

"Actually I saw that coming. We're on our way to an uninhabited planet. From there we'll have a clear route to Telos IV, and any authorities that actually know we stole this ship will have a harder time finding us."

Adrienne didn't sound completely certain, which was unsettling for Casey. "Wait…do you mean you set a course for an unexplored system? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Well we aren't going to be caught quite as easily, now are we? Sure it's a little more dangerous, but I didn't really have time to weigh the risks."

Unsurprisingly, Zach was the first to respond. "And you didn't think picking a random

star with no name was a bad idea?"

"Honestly, all I was thinking about was getting off Sernpidal. Or did you forget we were hours away from dying?" Adrienne was on the edge of her seat now.

"You could have sent us right into an asteroid field! Or a planet! Or worse!"

"But I didn't, did I?"

Casey reentered the argument. "It doesn't matter if you did or not! You still didn't think about what might happen! We could have gotten off Sernpidal, only to hit something else and die!"

"Enough! We're all on the same side here guys. We are not going to argue all the way to Telos and beyond over something this stupid! What, do you guys need to be sent to separate corners? Am I going to need to send you to your rooms?" Tyler glared at the three of them, as if daring them to say something. "Good. Now, we have some business to attend to. I've been thinking…when we drop off the people we rescue…I think we should keep the ship. After Sernpidal, I don't want to just sit on a planet and live a normal life. I don't want to see another tragedy happen, and aboard this ship…"

"I'll second that. We've got the money to keep the ship running for a while. And life aboard a ship might be a little more relaxing than life on a planet. At least for me." Chase's agreement with the idea reinforced the idea that he had just now began to comprehend what had just happened.

"But…we're just kids." Zach spoke almost hesitantly, as if afraid of the response he would get.

"We're just kids, and we also just stole a government corvette. I think we'll be fine on that account Friss." From the sound of her voice, Jessica was becoming tired of Zach.

Tyler sighed. "Friss, just shut up. I'm tempted to space you right now. Anyway, let's just take a vote. All in favor, raise your hand." Acceptance was unanimous, with everyone being in favor or accepting to remain with their friends.

"Okay. We're going to need to decide some things now. First of all, who is going to be our captain? And Friss, if you even think about volunteering I'm locking you in the torpedo bay and opening it to vacuum" Tyler looked at Zach for a moment, and then began looking from person to person waiting for an answer.

Casey spoke first. "Well, Claire and Allie did come up with the plan that got us off Sernpidal…"

"No, I don't want to be captain. What about you Allie?" Claire said.

"No…Tyler, how about you? Out of all of us, you are the one that knows the most about the galaxy. You know a lot about all the aliens we could run in to, and you can probably fly any ship made by most of the main companies."

Tyler considered it for a moment. "Well…I guess I could. But I really don't like being in a leadership position...

"Oh just take the job. Not many of us are going to object," Allie said. "Who objects?"

Zach predictably raised his hand, along with Cale and Casey.

"I still think Claire or Allie should get the job. They earned it on Sernpidal," Casey said enthusiastically.

"But we don't want the job and you just got outvoted. Tyler, you're captain." Allie turned to look at Tyler.

" Okay...well, um...let's start deciding who's going to do what then." He paused for a second. "Oh, and we'll have to ask the refugees if anyone wants to stay on board. We'll need more people for a complete crew."

"Hold on. I thought this ship only needed a bridge crew." Casey said, looking more confused than concerned.

"No, we needed a bridge crew to get it off the ground. We'll need a full crew for upkeep and various other duties. Okay...Garrett, you're going to be head of security. You're the only one with the skills for the job, so you have no choice. You'll train anyone that wants to be a guard or soldier or whatever we're going to call you guys."

"Fine by me. I'll go ahead and try to find some people for the job. Right after I finish checking out the armory. I'll see you guys later." Garrett walked off the bridge, heading straight to the turbolift.

"Cale, you're our head technician slash engineer. Zack...you'll be working under Cale. And remember, disobeying him is insubordination," Tyler said with a grin. Zach didn't look to happy about working under Cale, especially after Cale turned and grinned at him. Obviously Cale was planning to exploit his new found command over Zach.

But if anyone noticed, no one objected. Jessica then became the first to volunteer for a job.

"I know a bit about droids so I'll be the droid tech." She apparently was going to do the job whether Tyler objected or not, as she began to walk off the bridge without saying a word. Knowing Jessica, he decided not to argue.

Next came Allie. "I'll be our strategist. I think the plan me and Claire worked out on Sernpidal came out pretty well, so I think the two of us would do well."

Claire took the hint. "Yeah, I'll do it to." She yawned. "I'm gonna go take a nap…" With that, Claire left the bridge. Tyler still said nothing, expecting everyone to work things out themselves.

Daniel chose his job next. "I'll pilot the ship. I can fly CEC ships, so I shouldn't have any trouble with it. I'll go ahead and take a look at the controls." Daniel walked over to the captain's chair, which had apparently just become the pilot seat. Tyler didn't mind though, it would free up his own time for other things.

"Hey, I think I'm going to go find Garrett. I wanna be on the security detail." Chase smiled, so Tyler decided that his reasoning was questionable.

"Why do you want to be a security guard?"

"Mostly so I can wear the uniform. Ladies love the uniform," he said, emphasizing love. With one last smile, he left to find Garrett. He's his old self again, Tyler thought.

Casey was the only one without a job now. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do…can I decide later?"

"Sure. I'm sure it will be easier once we've turned this ship back into what it was meant to be. Weapons, fighters…the like."

"Thanks." Casey left the bridge, leaving Tyler wondering what he was going to end up doing. He didn't think about it too long though, as the ship soon left hyperspace.

"Adrienne?"

"I've already set in the new course." The stars began to move as the ship changed trajectory. "Daniel, you can go ahead and activate the hyperdrive again." The stars moved across the viewport and soon they were facing their new heading. The stars stretched into star lines, and then changed into the strange sight of hyperspace. In a day, they'd reach Telos IV.

Jessica reached the droid bay quickly, and set to work on the idea she'd gotten the last time she looked at it. She soon had a protocol droid disassembled, and began using the pieces to build a new droid, in the shape of a creature she had seen on a planet she couldn't remember the name of. It took some reworking of the various components but soon she had an inner shell assembled, and a fairly flexible one at that. The shell would give the droid the ability to jump and do several other movements it's donor could not.

That complete, she began incorporating pieces from other droids, combining several processors and an AI unit, giving it functions of both a protocol droid and an R series droid, among other things. Deciding to skip the lengthy process of programming for the time being, she moved on to other things the droid would need, such as photoreceptors and a datapad interface that would allow it to communicate with people. Upon completing the task of initial assembly, she checked her chrono, and, six hours after beginning, stopped for a break. She still had a lot of work to do, as none of the circuitry that would be needed to allow the pieces to communicate were in yet, and the incompatible units inside it needed to be jury rigged for any hope of service. It would be a while before the project was finished, but her hybrid pet droid would be well worth the trouble. Eventually.

There was little to do onboard, so Tyler had simply spent the time exploring the two galleys on the top of the ship, finding out what food there was. A few refugees were poking through it, getting food for the others. There wasn't much of interest, so he ended up helping the refugees find what they wanted instead of taking stock. He was glad when he felt the ship leave hyperspace, and practically ran to the bridge. He was surprised to find only Daniel and Adrienne waiting for him, everyone else being otherwise occupied. He spent a few minutes looking through the spaceport registries, and then he moved to the com station and opened a channel to a spaceport in a fairly occupied city called Lnisi. The city was listed as a seedy location, which was exactly what they wanted.

"This is Captain Sliivan of the Kuat Envoy requesting permission to land."

"Hello, Captain Sliivan. This is the Lnisi Spaceport. There is an open landing space at the coordinates I've just transmitted to your ship. However, it will be expensive…after all, stolen ships are supposed to be reported." Great, Tyler thought. The news did get out after all. Though how someone with no governmental ties on a backwater planet had found out, he'd never know.

"Understood. We'll pay when we land.." He nodded to Daniel, and the ship lurched forward as he upped the speed and entered the gravity of Telos IV. They soared over the landscape, the plains and cliffs of the planet speeding by until a city sprawl became apparent in the distance. The ship slowed, and soon Tyler could see the spaceport they were headed toward. They landed, and a docking arm extended to meet them.

"Come on Daniel. If things get rough having another pilot along could help."

"Ok. Should I go get Garrett?"

Tyler paused for a second to consider the possibilities. "Yeah. Tell him to grab a hold-out blaster for himself and two sleeve guns for us – I don't trust Cale with a blaster. I'll go find Cale - he might be handy when we find the slicer we need."

Tyler walked into the hallway and descended the staircase, stopping on the sixth deck where he expected to find Cale. With the fate of Sernpidal leaving his mind, he finally noticed the details on the walls. Or rather, the lack thereof. The walls were pure white, as were the floor and ceiling, with a slight slanting around twenty centimeters from the floor and ceiling that made the hallway a octagonal instead of rectangular. In Tyler 's opinion, it didn't make up for the pure whiteness of everything.

Soon he entered the recreation room and, sure enough, found Cale at a computer terminal near the library. Right where he'd been for most of the past day. "Cale?"

Cale turned from whatever he was doing to look at Tyler . "What? Can't you see I'm in the middle of something here?" Same old Cale, Tyler thought.

"We're going into Lnisi to find a slicer to obtain the new IDs. We figured you'd be handy to have along." Tyler replied, with a note of hostility in his voice. Same old Cale, same old kind of response..

Cale didn't answer immediately, to Tyler 's irritation. "Ok. Lemme just save what I was doing." It didn't take long. Soon they were at the open airlock, staring down the empty docking arm as they waited for Daniel and Garrett. They weren't kept waiting for long, as soon they emerged from the armory, Garrett wearing a black light combat suit. Daniel tossed Tyler his sleeve gun and it's holster, which were soon fastened on his arm under his sleeve. He could tell Cale was questioning why he didn't get one, but he remained silent.

"Where are we going?" Garret asked, checking the setting on his own blaster.

"Probably the seediest cantinas in town. We are looking for a slicer after all."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Daniel said. "Let's go." He started down the docking arm.

Cale moved first, and he and Garrett followed. No one bothered to check them for weapons, or even ask them what their business was in Lnisi. The only interruption was the man who had asked for a bribe, who accepted the credits and wordlessly left. The spaceport's design was fairly straight forward, and it didn't take them long to leave the poorly lit, run down building.

The streets weren't much better. The buildings were all the same shade of light brown, and there were signs of rust everywhere. The people wore clothes that must have come from a bargain bin, and looked unwashed and violent. Garrett must have been an imposing sight to them in his combat suit, as they stayed away from the group as they moved down the street.

It was a long walk before they emerged from the residential district, but the market district wasn't much better. The only difference was the abundance of street side venders and signs on the building displaying the names of various stores and bars. Selecting a bar with a name in Basic, he entered and moved to the bartender. He tried not to look around, preferring to keep the appearance they'd so far managed to give that was warding off the locals. Even without looking, he could tell the patrons were all looking at him. At all of the tables, arranged in a series of rings around the half circle bar itself, some manner of sentient species sat, nursing drinks or playing sabaac. The room was surprisingly dimly lit, bartender could see well it low lighting.

The bartender was a Whiphid, and was an imposing sight, towering above him at a height of over two meters.. His fur was golden, and he wore an animal skin outfit which sported a poorly hidden blaster. His tusks were mostly sawed off, suggesting a rough past, and he appeared to glare at Tyler, though it was hard to tell because of the Whiphid's natural appearance.

The bartender placed a hand on his blaster, clearly expecting trouble from the strangers. "What do you want?"

Stay cool, Tyler thought. "Information. More specifically, where we can find a slicer that can change the ID on our ship." He swallowed.

The Whiphid's already small eyes narrowed. "You're working for that New Republic official aren't you? Well I don't know any slicers. Go tell your boss to leave me alone." The bartender's hand was on his blaster now.

Still, he had to try. "We're not working for any official. What if we bought some drinks? Would that help?"

That must have been the wrong thing to say. "I don't know any slicers. I suggest you leave now." Tyler looked down to find the blaster he had noticed earlier pointed at him.

He slowly turned and moved out, noticing Daniel and Cale were nowhere to be seen and Garrett was leaning against the wall by the door. As he approached, Garret gave Tyler a questioning look and turned to leave, and upon leaving the bar, Tyler found Daniel and Cale waiting outside.

"Why were you outside?," The obvious question came out.

""I decided to check out the cantina across the street while you guys took this one. So, any luck?"

"No. Unless getting a blaster pointed at your ribs counts. You?"

"Nope. Cale pissed off the owner and the bouncer kicked us out." Cale laughed as Daniel said this, and looked at the cantina across the street.

"That was fun! Besides, that guy was just to ugly. I had to say it."

Garrett interrupted them. "Try to be careful.. At that distance I can't exactly help you if you get shot. And with your luck, you'll get shot."

Tyler laughed, and stopped speaking. With nothing else to say, the conversation ended there.

The next few bars weren't much better. While he didn't get a gun pointed at him, he got absolutely no information he needed. Neither did Daniel when he decided to try a few bars. Or, not until the last one at least. He was recommended to the Gilded Carafe, the owner of which had the connections to get him a slicer. A half hour later, they entered the bar. The bar was unusually well lit compared to the others they had visited. The place was made for higher class citizens, as they no longer saw people in rags or bargain bin clothes. Instead, the patrons were dressed in business suits and other finery, and drank from fancier glasses.

The owner was a Rodian, surprisingly, but that explained the underworld connections quite well. The spines on his head ran straight back in a single row, and his thin mouth stuck out from his face by a few inches. He paid no attention to them as they entered, focusing instead on something below the counter. Garrett opted to approach with him this time, and moved in front of Tyler.

The Rodian was paying more attention than he thought. "You don't look like my normal customers. I'm assuming you're not here for drinks." His eyes remained fixed on whatever was under the counter.

"Let's get straight to business then. We need a slicer that can overwrite a ship's engine ID. We heard you can get us one." Inside, Tyler prayed that their first real lead would actually help them.

"You heard correctly. I'm guessing you are the ones who flew in on the Kuat Envoy then. You're planning on keeping the ship then?

"Yes. So, what do we need to do?

The Rodian chuckled. "Pay me. That's all." He raised his hands from beneath the counter, with a datapad in one of his hands. He showed them the screen. "This should cover it. The top amount is what I want for the information, the second is the fee my slicer friend will charge for the ID. Make sure you remember that second amount, he'll demand it as soon as he hears what you want."

The fee wasn't as high as he would have expected. "Okay. We can pay that." He turned to find Cale, who was only a feet away. "Cale, you did you bring enough credits to pay for this?" Cale looked at the two amounts listed on the datapad.

"Yeah. Here." He pulled out a few high denominator credit chips and placed them on the counter. "That should cover it."

The Rodian gave the equivalent of a smile. Good. He reached down and produced a small data chip. "You have a datapad correct? This contains the directions to my associate's...place of business. It will only last two hours before shorting out once activated, so I suggest you hurry. I assume that will be all?" He moved the credit chips into his pocket.

"Yes. And thank you." Tyler turned and hurried after Garrett and Cale, who were already outside looking at the directions.

"So this is it?" Tyler said. They stood outside a small building on the edge of town, slightly run down but otherwise in good condition for the part of the city they were in.

"Yep. Or at least, I hope it is. The directions shorted out a block ago." Garrett dropped the now useless chip and moved to the door. "Only one way to find out." He knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again.

And the door disappeared into the wall. But there wasn't anyone behind it. Tyler glanced at Garrett. "I have a bad feeling about this..." he said, but Garrett ignored him and moved forward. For a moment Garrett was out of sight, then he moved back out of the door.

"Doesn't look like a trap. I think he's just waiting for us farther in." He moved back through the door this time with everyone following him.

And, just as abruptly as the door opened, the lights came on. Farther into the room was an armchair facing the back wall, with a desk in front of it. Beyond that, the room was empty except for a spiral staircase in on corner. The chair swung around.

"I hear you want a new engine ID. I had plenty of time prepare it while you found your way here, so I just need some money and the name you want the ship to have."

Cale stepped forward with the money and put it on the table.

As he did that, Tyler spoke. "How about...something like the Phantom Dragon?" He heard his friends laugh behind him.

"Ok." He did something on his datapad. "I'm assuming you want this one to completely overwrite the other one, so I've made the necessary preparations. Just put this datacard into a slot on the ships computer, and the program on it will overwrite the old name. And here's a second one just in case, it's a temporary ID with the name Blood Wolf on it." He pushed a cards forward. "That one will be extra." The man was a con artist to, apparently.

"Thank you." Tyler placed the cards in his pocket. Cale put down some more credits, and the lights shut off as they left the building.

"Well, that went pretty well," Daniel said with an enthusiastic tone. "I expected us to at least get shot at once today."

"Don't get your hopes up. There's a guy behind us that's been following us since before the Gilded Carafe. I think he's a New Republic goon. No - don't turn around. He doesn't know we're on to him." Tyler started to turn to look at Garrett but he had disappeared.

"I say we just shoot him! He can't tell anyone if he's dead." Cale grinned maniacally, but no one gave his idea a thought.

The conversation continued on in much the same way up until the spaceport they had left the ship at, with Garrett unseen the entire time. That is, until they reached the front gate.

"Stop! You're the ones that came in on the stolen ship aren't you?" They slowly turned around to face the NR patroller.

No one could think of a response. "That's what I thought. Put your hands up, and come with me." There was a flash of blue light from behind him, and the man's eyes grew wide as he fell forward. Garrett stood behind him, blaster raised.

He smiled. "Not very attentive, is he?" He put his blaster back, set to stun Tyler noted, and walked closer to them. "Come on, he won't have been the only one here and someone else probably was alerted to our being here."

"Wait. There's no way we'll make it to our ship before his reinforcements arrive. Garrett, call the Dragon and tell them to lift off." Daniel started to move toward the entrance to the closest hangar and looked back to Garret. "Tell them to keep the hangar open and clear enough space for us to land." Garrett had a short conversation over his comlink.

Cale sliced the lock quickly, and they were in. The ship was a YT-1930, and was in fairly good condition. The wedge shaped ship's white paint was only marked in a few places, and the laser cannon turret had apparently been upgraded to a quadlaser. Rising from the claws at the front of the ship was half of a dome, with the hallway of the cockpit rising through the middle. Perpendicular to the cockpit's hallway were the two escape pod housings, which rose above the half dome and then sloped down in two claw-like protrusions that slipped slightly off the back of the ship, with the sublight engines nestled in between them. The cargo bays sloped out from the engines at a forty five degree angle, connecting to the rest of the ship just back from the escape pods.. The ventral ramp just behind the cockpit was already open, and there was no one aboard. Daniel moved straight into the pilot's seat and began to prep the ship. Tyler decided to look around a bit, and turned down one of the hallways. The storage lockers has a lot of survival equipment in them, but nothing was particularly interesting. The cabins were all locked, so he continued around the curved hall and into the cargo bay. There were only a few crate in it, but the freezer at the very end of the triangular shaped ship was well stocked. Moving to the other side of the ship, he found that the weapon storage locker was empty. The holo table looked like it had been untouched in quite a while, and the tech station was code locked. The galley was locked as well. The rest of the ship was the same, and upon returning to the cockpit he sat in the copilot's seat.

"I can't fly this ship. These controls aren't CEC, they're something else," Daniel said, his head darting back and forth along the surface of the board.

Tyler stared at the board for a moment. "I think this is an Arakyd Industries unit...whoever owned this ship must have changed it. I can fly it, don't worry." Tyler took the pilot seat and lifted the ship off.

They made it to the ship without further incident, though the ride was a bit shaky, and locked the hangar doors once they were inside. It was a short walk to the bridge, and soon they were all at their positions.

Zack turned as they were settling in. "What did you guys do? We've got two New Republic drop ships approaching the spaceport, and there's a Strike-class cruiser in orbit."

Daniel glared at him. "We didn't do anything. That spaceport official who extorted us when we landed must have sold us out as soon as he got our money."

"We're being hailed by the cruiser," Casey said from the communications station. "I'm putting it through now."

The image of a human in a captain's uniform appeared on the screen. He had short black hair, and his face showed him to be at least forty years old. He looked angry, but surprised as well, probably just then realizing how old they were.

"Greetings. I am Captain Hain. I assume you are the ones who shot my operative...as you probably know, I have two drop ships one their way to your ship. I suggest you lower your shields and allow them aboard. You may get off with a lighter punishment that way."

Tyler felt the ship lurch into motion and the man's eyes widened in surprise. "We have six hundred refugees from the destruction of Sernpidal on board. I doubt you are going to try very hard to stop us. After all, you may harm our passengers." The ship shook as they began to leave the atmosphere.

"Don't you realize how futile this is?" Hain shook his head "There's a warrant out for the ship you are flying, you'll be stopped everywhere you go. Your charges include the deaths of several Kuati diplomats and their crew, theft of a government ship, monetary theft, hacking, bribery, and assaulting seven officers of the law." So he didn't know about the new ID. That could work to their advantage, Tyler thought. The captain sighed. "Have it your way. Fire at the Kuat Envoy! Cripple their engines!"

With that, the image disappeared. And it was replaced by a view of the cruiser ahead of them, and a flurry of blue bolts flying straight toward them.

Casey turned from the screens in front of him. "But we've got civilians on board! Why

would they risk killing them?"

Daniel gave a look of understanding. "No....they aren't risking their lives at all. Those are ion cannon bolts, smarts. They're only trying to scare us into giving up."

"It doesn't matter whether those are lasers or not, our shields are being drained, and fast." Cale didn't bother to turn around, but he sounded unworried about the attack.

"Daniel, how long until we're out of the planet's gravity well?" Tyler said.

"A couple of minutes or so. But it depends on which direction we're going in."

Allie didn't give him a chance to respond. "Ok. Adrienne, plot a course...for Carida."

Adrienne spun around, obviously confused. "Carida? But there isn't anything there! Why would we go there?"

Allie smiled. "Because they won't see it coming. If we go to Carida, we get around a week in hyperspace to plan, plus they won't be waiting for us when we get there. While we're in hyperspace we'll change the ID, and then we'll turn around and land on Taanab from the other side. They won't be expecting it, plus they won't know it's us."

The bridge went silent as the plan sank in. Tyler took the opportunity to speak. "Adrienne, go ahead and do it. Daniel, the moment we're out of the gravity well, take us into hyperspace."

Cale straightened, his head darting back and forth between his displays. "Shields are down! And they managed to take out our particle shields too!"

The particle shields. Without those, anything they collided with could punch a hole in

the hull. "Daniel, make this ship go as fast as it possibly can. I don't care if the engines start taking damage, just do it."

"Ok." He didn't sound convinced. They continued on in silence for a short time, but it seemed like a lot longer.

Garrett moved over to the weapons console and began pressing buttons.

"What are you doing?" Allie asked.

"I think there may be some hidden weapons. Think about it. Correlian ship. Kuati owners. And we could use some weapons." Almost as if on cue, eight double barreled turbolaser status lights appeared on the screen of the console. The moment they appeared though, they turned orange to show they were out of ammunition. "Oh well...it was worth a try."

Obviously, the previous owners had wanted them to remain hidden. Which explained why there was no tibanna gas for them and why they hadn't appeared on the weapons console. The hatches they must have been hidden in could be useful later on though.

Tyler was brought back to reality by Cale. "We just lost communications." He paused for a moment. "Sensors are gone to. We can't take much more of this before we're dead in space."

"One more minute." Daniel said.

The cruiser, Tyler noted, was no longer in view, but the occasional ion cannon shot could be seen flying past them. Over Cale's shoulder he saw that more of the ship was dysfunctional than he had told them, but apparently Cale wasn't willing to reveal that to everyone else. No one else seemed willing to look either.

After another forty seconds or so, the entire display had gone red.

"We've lost our sublight engines. And life support."

"Activate every maneuvering thruster that will push us forward! We don't need to go much further." Tyler leaned on the rail in front of him.

The ship stopped drifting and began to gain speed again. And then the bridge lights shut off.

"Kriffing...!" Said someone toward the back of the bridge with a metallic clang. Tyler looked at Daniel, hoping they were almost free.

Then, just in time, the stars stretched into starlines and the starlines changed into a hyperspace vista. Tyler sighed. "Just in time. Cale, when can you have everything back up?"

"Before we get to Carida, I know that much. With some help from any refugees with technical training, we can have most of the more important stuff done in a day or so." He glanced down at the screen. "I'm not looking forward to fixing this stuff by the way."

"Well, you don't really have a choice, now do you. One thing before you go though...why wasn't the hyperdrive taken out by the ion cannons?"

"According to the schematics, the hyperdrive is separated from the rest of the system and insulated against interference like electro-magnetic pulses or ion cannons. They hadn't hit us nearly enough to get to the command system, so even though the rest of the ship is down it stayed on."

Tyler nodded and produced the ID card from his pocket.. He inserted it into a slot on the control console nearest to him, and waited for the program to overwrite the old ID. He took the chip back out of the slot and followed everyone else off the bridge. He returned to the hangar and boarded the YT-1930, soon to be the Blood Wolf. He put the temporary ID into a slot on the ship's computer, leaving it there so that the ID would stay active. Done with that task, he headed to the Dragon's galley for some food.


	3. Chapter 3

Daniel decided to spend the trip to Carida with Garrett, looking for potential crew members. It was difficult, since each room they entered threw a flurry of question at them, since no one but those who were on the bridge knew what had happened upon leaving Telos IV. They obtained several candidates none the less, and they were all assembled in front of them in the recreation room. Of course, they were only looking for volunteers to be shipboard guards.

And those who's families were not saved on Sernpidal were the ones who volunteered. So far, they had about half a dozen people, two of which were adults. From left to right, they were Chase, Chris, Sarah, Zane, Verik, Siv-Ra, and Kelini.

Chris had skin a shade of brown, and was fairly large for his age, but more of it was muscle than fat, contrary to his appearance. His head was almost completely shaved, and he looked older than his real age of twelve.

Sarah had brown hair that touched her shoulders and somewhat pale skin, with brown eyes. She was of average height for a fourteen year old, and wore her normal attire: a green jacket and blue pants.

Zane had short brown hair and blue eyes, and was muscular due to his athletic interests. Back on Sernpidal, he had been a bit of a lady's man because of his good looks, though he had only had one girlfriend who he was always with.

Verik was an albino. He was of an average, if not lesser, build, and ever since Sernpidal he had a perpetually angry appearance.

Siv-Ra was around the age of thirty-eight, and his family hadn't been in town when the catastrophe had happened. His black hair was dotted with gray, and his green eyes looked clouded as a result of his losses. He had lost interest in life, and as a result he didn't want to be dropped off on Taanab to live a normal one. Instead, he had opted to join them as a warrior, no matter what path they took on their new ship.

Kelini was in her twenties, and was somewhere in between attractive and unattractive. She was a blond, but her hair had a strange tint to it due to her being a near human of a race unknown even to her.

"At ease," Garrett finally said. He waved them to the VR stations and put a helmet on. Each of the recruits joined him, and they waited for the helmets to upload their physical abilities, which would limit what they could do in the simulation to things they could achieve in reality. Daniel walked over to the monitor screen on the side to watch. They were standing in a line with Garrett telling them what they would be doing.

In the simulation, each of them held a gun based on the information the helmets had

uploaded from their brains. Sarah and Siv-Ra each held sniper rifles, while Kelini, Zane, Chase, and Verik held ordinary blasters. Chris was equipped with a combat knife and what appeared to be a projectile pistol with a silencer.

Garrett spoke to them for a couple of minutes though the words were to quiet for Daniel to hear them from the monitor. When he finished they scattered, and Garrett stayed where he was for a few minutes. The recruits disappeared into the trees around the clearing they had been standing in. Garrett stood where he was for a few minutes, and then he prepared his blaster and walked in after them. For a moment Daniel thought the simulation would have Garrett hunting down the recruits, but then Garrett stopped at what appeared to be a campsite. There were fourteen soldiers by Daniel's count, with standard blasters and positioned in various places around the camp, some at guard positions while others slept or ate.

While most of the recruits were still reaching their positions, a shot caught one of the soldiers in the head. In an instant the men were armed and ready, scrambling for cover and searching for the enemy. One of them spotted the source of the shot, and a blaster bolt rang out. Siv-Ra fell from a tree and his body scattered into digital particles, his part in the simulation over due to premature action.

Not everyone was as unlucky as him however. Chris appeared at one edge of the camp with his combat knife drawn, and one inattentive soldier disappeared into the bushes with him. As another soldier began to move toward the victim's former position, a shot from Sarah's sniper rifle killed him. The men responded by changing their positions to give them cover from her sniper rifle, which resulted in two more dropping from blaster rifle shots behind them.

The soldiers were faster than the recruits this time though. Chase had gotten to close to the clearing, and he took several blaster bolts before he could react. His body dissolved into digital particles as it fell to the ground.

The soldiers began to push their way outward, losing three more men to Chris and Sarah's ambushes and sniping. They moved cautiously, making ground bit by bit and remaining under cover as much as possible. Zane and Chris, on almost opposite sides of the circle, remained unnoticed, and two more soldiers fell victim to the attacks. Chris attacked silently yet again, this time with his handgun, but Zane's attack wasn't as silent. His blaster attracted the attention of the enemy troops, and he ran out of the circle under enemy fire, but managed to escape their range without a hit.

Kelini's hiding place wasn't nearly as well hidden as Zane or Chris's and she was the next to fall. A soldier kicked her square in the chest, and shot her several times as she hit the ground. Her body collapsed into particles and the soldier walked through them as they vanished.

Chris ran out of luck on his next attack, and his target spun around and released a flurry of blaster bolts into his body. As Chris's body dissolved the soldier was killed by an attack from Verik, making his first kill. However, he was caught from behind by a one of the last two soldiers, and he was removed from the simulation as well. His attacker had revealed himself though, and Sarah killed him with a perfect headshot.

One man was left, and he appeared to be playing dead in the vicinity of one of Chris's ambush sites. Zane had begun checking the area for the final soldier, and after a few minutes he had reached the location of the survivor. As the man began to raise his blaster for the kill, Zane shot him, having noticed the slight motions his chest was making as the virtual man breathed.

Upon the final kill Garrett revealed himself, motioning with his hands to tell Zane and

Sarah to join him. Everyone who had fallen in the battle reappeared in a flurry of digital particles, weaponless this time, and the recruits assembled around Garrett.

"At-tenn-shun!" At Garrett's command, the recruits snapped to attention. "At ease. Well...I guess that was pretty good for a couple of greenhorns. But! Only two of you survived. On the lowest difficulty. And your teamwork really needs work. Siv-Ra, why did you attack before your comrades were in place?"

"Because...sir. I believed some of them weren't stealthy enough, and I was under the impression that the element of surprise was too important to lose. I decided that attacking before they knew we were there was necessary for victory, so I struck." Siv-Ra glared at Garrett as he spoke, as if he had just realized he had committed himself to the command of a teenager.

"Wrong answer. You did it because you were being cocky and egocentric, and you thought you were better than the rest of your team. And you were the first one eliminated. If you're going to work with us, you need to learn to depend on your teammates and use their skills to your advantage. No more risky decisions based on getting recognition. That goes for all of you. Though you didn't all make a stupid decision like that, I want you all to learn from it. Now, for the second simulation..."

Cale stood with a sigh, having gotten yet another system back up. His new crew of technicians recruited from the refugees had been a great help, and the majority of the ship was working again. It was still slow work restoring power to each part of the ship, one at a time though, and it didn't help that some circuits had been melted in the attack. Fortunately, the life support and other necessary systems hadn't been damaged much, and those were brought back up a long time ago.

He put the wall panel back in place and turned, barely dodging another panel leaning against the wall next to him, with a technician working on the systems there. There were a few people still at work, but for the most part all the work on that floor was done. The top floor and the hangar were still full of systems that were offline, but, having done nearly an entire floor on his own before Friss had arrived with help, Cale had decided he was done. He stopped to look at a few of his temporary subordinates' work, and, deciding nothing was about to explode, he headed to the bridge. No one was there, unsurprisingly, and the only thing to be seen was the hyperspace vista outside.

But that wasn't what he was there for, and he only glanced at the transparisteel viewport before he settled down at the com station and activated the internal com system. He thought about what to say for a moment, and then cleared his throat.

"To anyone working on getting those systems on, if you are interested in staying on the ship with us after we land on Taanab, come up to the bridge when you finish whatever you are doing. We need a team of people on board to keep this ship working, so we'll take whatever we can get." He stood up and walked down to the bottom level of the bridge, stopping at the viewport. He settled into a comfortable standing position and began waiting for any takers to his offer.

Future minions, he joked to himself. They would be under his command after all. Calling them that probably wouldn't be the best idea, but he would at least take the opportunity to call Friss his minion.

His mind continued to wander until, after a time unknown to him, the door two levels up opened. He turned to face the newcomer, a young Iktotchi by the name of Arkaa Vaelynn. His rough skin was undamaged and his horns were clean and unmarred, which was unusual for an Iktotchi, but he had spent his childhood in a city and had developed as such. He was unique among the refugees as being the only non-human. His parents had abandoned him on Sernpidal for unknown reasons, and he had grown up among humans.

He was a better pilot than technician or engineer, and Cale knew it. But until they acquired something for him to pilot, he would do just fine.

"I'd like to stay on board. My friend Verik has decided to become a guard on the ship, and I've not really bonded with any of the other humans that survived." At the end of the last sentence Arkaa's voice dropped a pitch, making it obvious what he meant.

Cale grinned, which probably wasn't the most appropriate reaction. "We'd be happy to have you join us. Besides, we'll take any help we can get." Arkaa nodded slightly as Cale finished, understanding what he meant.

Arkaa tilted his head upwards for a moment, and then turned to face the door. "Two approach," He said. "One adolescent male and one adolescent female." The Iktotchi precognition ability. Most Iktotchi liked to keep it hidden due to prejudices against them, but apparently Arkaa had become comfortable enough with his people's gift to openly display it. Cale marveled at the trust Arkaa had in the humans he had been raised with.

For a long moment nothing happened. Then, just as Cale was beginning to doubt the prediction, the door slid open. Sure enough, a teenage boy walked in with a girl not far behind.

The boy took a few steps into the room and stopped to look around. He had short brown hair with some blonde mixed in, and his eyes were a blend of brown and green. His face was thin with a look of strength to it.

The girl, recognizing Cale, moved toward him. She had brown hair just past her shoulders with brown eyes and white skin, which was a product of her anemia. Her name was Mary Caroline, and she was a friend of Tyler's.

"Can I help you?" Cale asked after a few moments.

"Oh, I'm sorry," came the reply in a heavily Coruscanti accent. "I was looking for the crew."

"And I'm looking for Tyler. Have you seen him?," Mary Caroline asked.

Cale glared at Kieran, ignoring her question. "I'm am part of the crew! In fact, I'm the head engineer!" Cale replied angrily. "Why do you think I'm on the bridge?"

"He didn't mean any harm," Arkaa interjected. "I'm sure neither of us looks like we'd be in charge of a ship."

"Yeah...sorry about that. It's just...you're around the same age as me...I didn't think..." the boy said apologetically.

Most likely due to Cale's outburst, Tyler walked onto the bridge as the boy finished. He looked at the boy, then Mary Caroline, and then at Cale.

"Cale, what was that?" he asked.

"This guy just walked in asking for the crew like we're just freeloaders or something!," Cale exclaimed.

Tyler sighed. He turned to the boy. "I'm sorry...um, what's your name?"

"Kieran. Kieran Sybal. Erm...I was looking to join up, but I really didn't know who to go to."

"Okay, well...what are you good at?"

"Uh...I'm a decent pilot, and I can fire a blaster fairly well. And I can take apart , clean, and reassemble a blaster pretty quickly, because I used to have a blaster. Except I can only know how to do it with that model."

"Ok, come with me. I'll introduce you to Garrett, he's the head of security and he'll train you with the other recruits. Oh, and my name is Tyler Sliivan, I'm the captain." He looked at Mary Caroline. "Hi. I'm sorry, I didn't know you were aboard. I'm happy you made it though," he said with relief.

"Well, maybe if you'd bothered to look," she said, rolling her eyes and laughing.

"Are you looking to join the crew?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure what I can do though," she responded.

"Let's see...you can sing and act...yeah, you're pretty much useless," Tyler joked.

"Maybe she could perform when we're in hyperspace," Kieran suggested.

"Sure, as soon as you explain how I can perform alone," she said. She looked down in thought, trying to figure out what she could do aboard the ship.

"Oh well, I'm sure we'll think of something. Well I've gotta introduce Kieran to Garrett, so let's talk on the way. Come on," Tyler said. Tyler waved Kieran to follow him, and the three of them walked off the bridge to the turbolift, leaving Cale and Arkaa alone on the bridge.

Cale looked at Arkaa. "Well, let's go see if we can find anymore people to join us. I'm bored of waiting for them to come to us." Arkaa laughed at Cale's statement, and they wandered off the bridge to search for volunteers.

The week continued in much the same way, with the occasional refugee joining up and minor arguments occurring as people became stir crazy from the close quarters. Everyone began to calm down when they came out of hyperspace in the Carida system, and, soon enough, they reached Taanab. Everyone from the original crew was present, along with Arkaa and a few refugees that had become the bridge crew.

The occasional ship popped out of hyperspace or rose from the planet's surface, but other than that the system was clear. The lack of red diplomatic outlining of the ship was working in their advantage, and as they locked into orbit no one moved to stop them. After a quiet assessment of the available landing places, the ship docked on the surface in a reasonably unpopulated region, and the refugees began unloading. It was difficult to trick their families into leaving without them, but, with the help of the older crew members, a cover story was made and they were able to stay aboard for what the parents thought would be a few minutes.

Shortly afterwards, the ship lifted off and docked with an orbital platform, where it would stay for several weeks while being repainted in a matte black with blue outlining and detailing. The ship's tibanna tanks would also be refilled during this time, and the guns would undergo and inspection for functionality.

In the meantime, there was little to do. everyone scattered, going to more or less random places on the ship to find things to do. Garrett had decided to give his recruits a few hours off, so the virtual reality stations were open. Tyler decided to hook up a set of fighter dashboard units to the stations for a fighter simulation, and found some people to participate in the contest. There were three teams of five, with two participating at a time.

Tyler had selected his team himself, and had Daniel, Kieran, Mary Caroline, and Arkaa flying with him. Team Two consisted of Garrett, Cale, Claire, Zane, and Verik, while Team Three was made of Siv-Ra, Chase, and several of the newer crew members.

"Um...well, there's not much to do on the ship, so we'll be doing some fighter simulations for a little fun, which is why we're divided into teams. The team flying on the left consoles will be flying X-Wings, and the team using the ones on the right will fly TIE Interceptors, though for the sake of fairness the weapon loads, speeds, and shields are the same.

"Each side will have a capital ship to defend, the New Republic side has a MC-80 class cruiser, and the Empire has a Star Destroyer. The ships are programmed not to fire on the fighters, so it's you're job to defeat each other. There are several objectives that count toward your team's score. The first priority is defeating each other's team members, and it gives you the highest amount of point. The second is destroying the various hardpoints on each ship, including a number of more powerful weapons banks, an external sensor suite per ship, and a point designated as the bridge, since the bridge of an MC-80 is internal. Okay, let's get started, Team One, we're Republic, Team Two you're Empire."

Everybody settled into a station and looked at the controls. A timer appeared in the middle of the image, and, when it reached zero, they began to lift off and leave their ship's hangar bay.

"Okay, MC, you and Kieran are bombing. One of your displays should show you where

the enemy hardpoints are, pick one and go for it. Daniel, you and Arkaa will be flying defense for them with me. Try to stay behind them until we meet their fighters." They settled into their positions in formation, and sped toward the Star Destroyer.

As the distances closed, Tyler spotted the small dots that were the enemy TIE Intercepters, just after they appeared on the radar. Looking more closely he realized there were

only three, then he noticed two black dots speeding across the Star Destroyer's gray hull.

"Looks like they've decided to try both objectives at once. Arkaa, you stick with MC and Kieran and engage the ones by the ship. Me and Daniel have this.

Tyler slowed down, allowing the other three ships to quickly leave them behind. Daniel noticed him drop his speed and did the same, and the enemy fighters got the message. They allowed the first three fighters past them, and moved in to engage Tyler and Daniel.

The first pass landed no hits from either side. Tyler neglected to shoot, instead only aiming to obtain a target lock, which scared the pilot speeding toward him into dodging. Daniel shot wildly, but his opponent was able to dodge the unaimed shots. The third fighter simply sped by uninterrupted.

Tyler cut his sublight drives and turned on every maneuvering thruster on one side of his fighter, causing him to spin around. Without the limitations of real gravity, he remained conscious through the maneuver and was on the tail of his target. The other pilot tried hard to lose him, barrel rolling and trying every basic maneuver in the book. Tyler stayed on his tail through it all though, and the pilot settled for small maneuvers to dodge his lasers.

But it wouldn't be easy. Tyler set his lasers to fire randomly powered shots with no real pattern to them. The flurry of potshots wore down his opponent's shields, and after a time with no powerful shots colliding, a pair of full powered shots collided, one with the port engine and the other with the connecter between the cockpit and port solar panel. The ship's wing exploded in a brilliant flash, and the ship spiraled off to the side before exploding from ignited fuel.

His attention no longer focused on his opponent, he noticed Daniel had also finished off his first opponent and was attempting to break the pursuit of the second, who had apparently decided to double team Daniel. Tyler swung his fighter around and sent several full powered blasts toward the attacker, throwing off his pursuit. The fighter wavered, as if the pilot couldn't decide which fighter to attack. Tyler sped past him, and as the fighter began to follow him Daniel blasted him out of the sky.

They turned their attention back to the Star Destroyer. The trio of their teammates had just reached the ship, and Arkaa and Kieran had engaged the defense. They chased each other around the hull, dodging turbolasers and other protruding apparatus.

Arkaa was a superior pilot, but he was outgunned. Both pilots turned to attack him, and the random fire from the ship's lasers combined with their attacks was to much

for him to dodge. He took several hits to his fighter, and crashed into the hull. The ships proceeded to turn their attention to Kieran.

Meanwhile, Mary Caroline was beginning her bombing run. She was headed toward the bridge, the biggest target on the ship. She quickly closed the distance, and fired a proton torpedo toward it. And then the time came to pull up. Her ship hesitated for a moment, then jerked...down, right into the bridge. There was a massive explosion as her remaining torpedos went off, destroying the bridge along with both sensor balls adjacent to it.

Tyler could hear a giggling from a couple of seats down, punctuated by gasps for breath.

"I...feel smart...hehe...I forgot the controls...are inverted..." she said in between fits of laughter.

"You really are useless," Tyler remarked. He resisted an urge to smack his forehead to prove his point.

"Hey! That's not nice!"

"That was the point," Tyler said, grinning at the familiar trade of words with his friend. He turned his fighter toward one of the defenders, counting on Daniel to do the same. Daniel opened fire before he did, and Tyler followed suit, catching the pilot off guard and obliterating the ship.

Kieran, now being chased by a single ship, swerved upwards, staying in the loop until he was behind the off-guard fighter. He opened up with his lasers, destroying the fighter and ending the game.

Tyler took off his helmet and smiled. Beside him, everyone else was pulling off their helmets one by one, and Team Three was clapping. Tyler stopped for a moment to think while everyone talked, and then decided which team would stay in.

"Okay, since we won, we'll swap with Team Three. Team Three is Empire, Team Two gets New Republic this time," he said. Daniel, Arkaa, and Kieran looked disappointed, while Mary Caroline didn't appear to care. Probably as a result of her suicide bombing.

They settled into standing positions as the next match began. It was going to be a long few weeks.


End file.
